Guidelines for renewing workout regimen

Yea I got a dog so I would have to walk with him daily. It's actually working! Not only do I walk him daily, I've actually stepped back into the gym now too! It's been baby steps for sure and I'm not beating myself up because I'm not running a marathon. Slow but sure this time is my mantra.

Thank you all for your advice. I feel better about not making it to the gym as much this week. I'll definitely try limiting my strength training to movements that work multiple muscle groups. In terms of weight though, I am having the issue of finding that I am perfectly capable of lifting the weight I used to (or close to it), and doing like 3 sets of 8-10 without any problem, but then feeling SO sore the next couple days... How do I gauge the weight in that case?

To avoid the "working every muscle group" approach do full body and compound movement exercises which will accomplish that goal for you.I suggest doing no more than 6 bodyweight exercises per session to begin, doing them on alternate days with some lower intensity cardio on the non bodyweight days for a couple of weeks. This will transition you back into the concept of regular workouts and prepare you for a more structured and demanding work.

Make haste slowly but make it regular and structure to get the practice back as an integral part of your life/

Archimedes makes some great points about workouts not having to be "all or nothing".

Over 2 years, you have almost certainly lost all the fitness and conditioning that you had. And you need to ramp up gradually to get back to where you were.

One option might be to actually write yourself out an exercise program. Start with where you are now, and set a goal of where you want to be in 8 weeks time, and then build progressively towards that goal. Hopefully by writing it down, you can remind yoursel not to push too hard too soon.

As long as you are improving, you are NOT wasting your time.

Spinning is an intense workout, and probably something you should wait a few weeks to build your fitness for before tackling it.

If you haven't been to the gym in two years, you don't want to go whole hog to start out. You want to slowly ease into a routine so that going to the gym will become just that, a routine.

There is a misconception that a person has to kill themselves in the gym to see results. that's not healthy. Cardiologists will tell you that taking a 30 minute brisk walk each day can reduce your risk for heart disease by over 30%. Not bad for a 30 minute walk.

The problem is that too many people look at good health and weight loss with an "all or nothing" mentality. Well, that's not a healthy way to look at either. EVERY little bit really does make a difference even if you don't see a difference. We assume that the only worth while changes to our health are those measured by a scale. The fact is, there are changes happening to your body that you can't see.

If your blood pressure drops in the next month, your doctor would be thrilled even if you didn't drop a pound. Lowering your blood pressure is a huge health benefit. And that's how you have to look at your exercise. Exercise isn't just about burning X calories in Y time. The benefits of a regular execise routine go beyond how many calories we burn. that's what too many people forget.

Good health isn't just about losing weight and hitting the gym. it's about enhancing and improcing our well being.

Okay, so back to the question. What to do ? Slowly ease into a routine. Don't try to go five times a week, start with 1-2 times a week. Once you feel comfortable going 1-2 times, then maybe you go three times. Mix up your routine so that you don't end up bored or injured. I know we'd all love for the weight to be gone overnight, but weight loss isn't that simple. You didn't gain the weight overnight, it's not coming off overnight.

Your goal should be to get back to exercising regularly, so even if you do 10 minutes 5 days this week, you are completely sucessful. After you've reestablished the habit of exercising, then perhaps you can address the proper cardio intensity, using heavy weights etc.

I am trying to get back into the habit of going to the gym and working out regularly. I used to workout 5x/week, but it's been about 2 years since then and I am having a hard time transitioning back to a place where I am safely and effectively using my time there. I have a tendency to push too hard too fast with workouts, and I am afraid of hurting myself, but I also don't want to waste my time and put off seeing results. The last week I've gone and tried to keep it light while still hitting every muscle group (eg. I'll do about 15 min of cardio, a few ab exercises, squats, lunges, and then one exercise for chest, back, bi's, tri's, and shoulders). I wanted to start up spin classes today, but after the single-leg lunges I did yesterday my legs were so stiff I thought it might be a bad idea. Is this fear unfounded? Would it be better to go right back to more intensive split workouts?

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